As a family or private client lawyer, you hear some fascinating stories. Births, relationships, adventures and the odd scandal - the whole of human life passes across your desk. And you keep all of it to yourself!
So we won’t share with you any scandals or misadventures, but we can talk about some other interesting cases and clients.
One of the cases in the Lindsays archives involves the firm being asked to serve some legal documents in the 1940s on the mysterious “Dark Lady of Cammo”, called that because of her long black coat and reclusive lifestyle. According to newspaper reports at the time, no one ever called at her home: postmen and tradesmen left their deliveries at the gatehouse which were collected after dark. On the rare occasions she left her home, she was driven in a heavily curtained car.
Thwarted by padlocked gates and unfriendly guard dogs, Lindsays were unable to serve the documents, and therefore instructed a private eye to keep watch for the car leaving the estate. Alerted by the private eye, two Lindsays partners then raced out to Cammo to await her return, one of them ‘armed’ by his wife with a pepper pot in case he needed to defend himself against the guard dogs.
The legal papers were successfully (and politely) delivered to the lady in the car just outside the gates, and the pepper pot, it seems, was not required. A more ‘filmic’ day than the partners’ usual routine.
One of Lindsays’ better-known and colourful clients of recent years was the “mystifier” Uri Geller, who won TV fame through his ability to bend spoons using the power of thought. Lindsays helped him to buy the uninhabitable Island of Lamb in the Firth of Forth.
Mr. Geller felt a “strong instinctive urge” to buy Lamb, because of its history, mythology and archaeological lore. It apparently has links to the Pyramids, King Arthur, Robert the Bruce and the ancient kings of Ireland – quite a combination.
There are plenty such stories in our archives, involving various colourful characters and odd cases. But, in fact, it’s not eccentric or famous people that make private-client law so fascinating, but, rather, the day-to-day involvement with people, families and the milestones in their lives. In that sense, every client story is interesting.
